[3] The road currently extends from just north of the intersection of Southwest 137th Avenue and U.S. Highway 41 (US 41) in Tamiami, eastward past the Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike (HEFT) (SR 821) and Miami International Airport, before intersecting I-95, becoming I-395 and ending at SR A1A in Miami at the west end of the MacArthur Causeway.

It then intersects with the Palmetto Expressway (SR 826) at the recently rebuilt Dolphin–Palmetto Interchange, and passes through the southern end of the Miami International Airport.

With the failure of FDOT to build either the previously planned airport spur or the proposed LeJeune Road Expressway to give additional access to the airport, Miami-Dade County's sole complete east–west throughway is now often congested, most commonly in the stretch between the Palmetto Expressway (SR 826) and LeJeune Road (SR 953).

Toll gantries are located along the expressway and on interchange ramps, eliminating all "free movement" sections that existed in the past.

Also in 1974, the name of the tollway was changed to commemorate the success of the Miami Dolphins of the NFL, after back-to-back wins in the Super Bowl.

The section of SR 836 signed as I-395 was supposed to open with the rest of the Dolphin Expressway in 1968, but was delayed due to a freeze at the federal level for road spending.

The fact that the Dolphin Expressway was not built to interstate standards and the expensive costs in upgrading it to such was one of the factors in changing I-75's proposed route.

[14][15] In 2016, the construction of additional lanes to match the rebuilt, higher capacity Dolphin-Palmetto Interchange, with SR 826 was completed.

The GMX is overseeing the construction of a new double-decker span of the SR 836 (from NW 17 Avenue, rising over the center of the existing SR 836 roadway, and touching down at I-395, east of the I-95 interchange), while the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is overseeing the construction of the complete replacement of the I-395 sector (from I-95 to the MacArthur Causeway), with a new "signature" cable-stayed bridge extending across it and over Biscayne Boulevard.

Community parks, art installations, and urban green spaces will be designed underneath the 1.4-mile stretch, from NW 3 Avenue to Biscayne Boulevard.